As he awaits his second Broncos season, Peyton Manning remains the talk of the town. He says extending his NFL career after neck surgery was “as difficult a physical and mental challenge that I’ve had.”

When you have what the coaches who have faced him over the past 15 years characterize as one of the NFL’s beautiful minds, when you can recite, play for play, third-quarter possessions of your college football Saturdays in 1997, folks want Peyton Manning to look back.

“He’s unbelievable,” said Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey. “I think I have a good memory about what I’ve seen in the game, and I do, but the detail in his, that’s the difference. He remembers everything, even the little things.”

But Manning isn’t always fond of what he calls “playing remember when.” Not now.

Now is about now. It’s about what the future can be, for Manning and for the Broncos’ offense. It’s about finding first downs and touchdowns, about playing fast or slow, whatever it takes to push the Broncos into the season’s final game, where the winner gets a silver trophy.

As the Broncos plow through offseason workouts, toward whatever awaits in the 2013 season, Manning’s teammates say they see a quarterback more at home in his surroundings, more willing to show a little more of himself.

Why? The best theory is that 2012 was a more arduous trek, filled with more bumps in the road, more question marks than Manning often let on, both inside and outside of team headquarters.

Last week, as the Broncos wrapped up another session of on-field workouts, Manning was asked: When he looks back on all that happened from the time doctors surgically repaired his neck in 2011, to the missed season, to his release by the Colts, to everything that was his first year in Denver, will he believe it all lifted him as a player to do things he may not have thought he could do?

“Well, it’s as difficult a physical and mental challenge that I’ve had,” Manning said. “It was very gratifying to have persevered through it. It would have been easy not to have done it, to have said ‘I’m not sure that I want to go through it, not sure that I can do it physically.’ It could have just been ‘Hey, I’m going to try my best’ and it just didn’t work. All those scenarios go through your mind.

“But I was determined to give it a go. I put a ton of work into it, had a lot of help. And when I look back, I think it will be very significant because of the obstacles I faced. I had a ton of support from a number of people, but it was gratifying to persevere through it. I guess that’s what I’d say right now, that it was gratifying. But maybe that’s all for another day. I really do have all my attention on what we’re trying to do here, right now, about doing my job.”

In 2012, that meant 13 wins for the Broncos, Manning’s 12th 4,000-yard passing season and his seventh season with at least 30 touchdown passes. But the Broncos didn’t get the ending they wanted. Their double-overtime playoff loss to the Ravens remains a hot topic.

But when Manning went through his usual review of the previous season, he noticed a subtle difference.

“Last year, I was still learning a little bit more about myself,” Manning said. “This year, I have a little more a baseline to kind of go off, to look at it. But I set a high bar for myself.”

“Last year he was going through a lot,” said Broncos tight end Jacob Tamme, who played for the Colts with Manning. “Not only a new team, but his body, his rehab. He’s still working on that, but you can tell he feels a little bit better.”

The Broncos, with first-year offensive coordinator Adam Gase, want to pick up the pace. But it might be more about having the option to go fast, faster and fastest, to use it when it’s needed, give Manning the opportunity to go as fast, or slow, as the situation dictates.

“We’re studying what defenses are doing, but we’re studying ourselves too,” Manning said. “I think that’s what this time of year is about, making sure we do what we need to do. I’m not sure I’ve ever believed tempo is what makes you successful, how fast you go, how much you huddle. I think it’s about knowing what you can do, doing it right, about doing your job. If you’re not doing your job, it doesn’t matter what the defense is doing because you won’t have a chance. That’s kind of where I’m at right now in all of this, moving forward, working on this year.”

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